// Category Archive for: Music

The Tubes, Young And Rich and Now

By Cait Brennan

One of the most adventurous, imaginative, and irreverent bands of the 1970s and ’80s, The Tubes made a career—a whole new art form, really—out of being much too much.

The band existed in an alternate reality, almost inconceivable from our point of view, when bands could attack all different kinds of music, from every angle and attitude, in every genre now known or yet to be invented. In their time they were avant-garde madmen, merry pranksters, X-rated performance artists, art school punks, agents provocateurs, AOR gods, and—in a fitting twist of irony—actual Top 40 pop stars, becoming for a brief moment the very thing they were always sending up. Whether it was high concept or low pop, innovative composition and brilliant musicianship was the order of the day.

Now Real Gone Records has reissued two of the group’s essential yet long out-of-print early albums, Young And Rich and Now, the latter of which has never been issued on CD in the US, ever. It’s a welcome and wonderful addition to the Tubes’ catalog.

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Paul Thorn, What The Hell Is Goin’ On?

By Paul Casey

There were two barriers to my listening Paul Thorn‘s cover album, What The Hell Is Goin’ On? The first, I was not aware of Paul Thorn’s music. The second, I was not familiar with many of the songs he covered (and in some cases with the artists too). Quickly though these barriers turned to my advantage (aha!), finding a pleasant collection of Blues numbers and a new fellow who can turn it out a bit for money.

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Redd Kross, Researching The Blues

By Less Lee Moore

” . . . there’s nothing more comforting than being in a room with my brother where him and our drummer are just talking endlessly about Bob Dylan bootlegs and we have stupid inside jokes about public access shows from 1984. With them I can just turn my brain off and I don’t need to worry about the social aspect of this environment—that’s sorted.”
—Steven McDonald, interviewed in Stereogum, July 30, 2012

Disclaimer: Redd Kross has been an integral part of my life for almost 20 years, so I can’t promise that this review will be 100% objective. I can, however, promise that it will be 100% sincere.

Redd Kross. Oh, where to start? So much history that I can’t cram it all into one review, but chew on this: The band has been around for more than 30 years. Despite various lineup changes, two members have remained steadfast—brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald, now both in their 40s. (Your math is correct; Jeff and Steven started the band at ages 15 and 11, respectively.) And yes, they have been integral to my life, something that can’t be overstated; after all, the name of this website was inspired by the name of one of their albums.

Throughout the band’s existence, Redd Kross may not have released as many “proper” albums as other bands, but they’ve been no less prolific, participating in various soundtracks, tribute albums, singles, EPs, and at least two alter egos (how else do you describe Anarchy Sixx or Tater Totz?). Although their sound has never been what purists might consider punk rock, their attitude has always been. Even the bubblegum pop of 1990’s Third Eye contains a metal tribute to Japanese girl group Shonen Knife. Thus, answering the question, “so what does Redd Kross sound like?” has always been tricky.

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Thoughts On: The Band, CAHOOTS

By Paul Casey

Part four in a continuing series on THE BAND’s discography.

To read the whole series, go here.

“Where do we go from here?”

Cahoots was the last album of new material THE BAND would record until their last great work, Northern Lights – Southern Cross, in 1976. On the basis of the songs, and the disconnect between the constituents of THE BAND, it was a tough album to make. There is little thematic cohesion here. It is a leap around America in a manner—from the fairground to Chinatown—but it lacks the conceptual feeling of The Band or the personal confession of Stage Fright. It does have some of the eclectic feeling of Big Pink, if little of that album’s mood. It is when the burn out became an issue and when it became apparent that THE BAND could not muscle through their creative and personal issues. They do give it a hell of a try, though. Cahoots is not a classic, like the previous three, but it is a good record. (more…)

Assemblog: August 3, 2012

Jonah Lehrer
Photo © Peter J. Thompson/National Post files

New this week on Popshifter: Paul calls The Very Best Of Sonny Rollins a “lovingly assembled” collection; J Howell thinks Jimbo Mathus’s new Blue Light EP would “benefit greatly from some sweat and whiskey”; Emily assesses the recently reissued albums of party pop princess Samantha Fox; I praise Anchor Bay’s recent reissue of superlative horror film The Entity on DVD and Blu-Ray; and Paul discusses violence and censorship in light of The Killer Inside Me.

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Samantha Fox Reissues: Touch Me (1986), Samantha Fox (1987), I Wanna Have Some Fun (1989), and Just One Night (1991)

By Emily Carney

Who is Samantha Fox? She’s probably the most notorious “Page Three Girl,” having posed topless for the UK tabloid The Sun at age 16 (yeah, I know it’s gross). Her parents were even behind her entry into show business and ubiquity. In the last decade, she’s been known in her home country for being a reality TV star, having done some stints on Wife Swap and I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!

However, in the US, many might remember her for her forays into the world of freestyle and dance pop. Cherry Pop Records has now reissued her first four albums, which will be essential to those who bopped their heads to Club MTV back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. (more…)

Jimbo Mathus, Blue Light EP

By J Howell

Listeners unfamiliar with Jimbo Mathus as a solo artist might be aware of his tenure as a member of Squirrel Nut Zippers, a band that for many is unfortunately and unfairly remembered as a one-hit novelty act. Or they may know him as the instigator at least partially responsible for Sweet Tea and Blues Singer, two albums that may well be bluesman Buddy Guy’s finest work since he was a young man; or perhaps as part of roots-music supergroup the South Memphis String Band; or maybe even as a member of the North Mississippi Allstars.

While Mathus has garnered plenty of attention—and at least one Grammy nomination—as a collaborator, it seems that he is often overlooked as a solo artist, which is a damned shame, as Mathus is a confirmed house-rocker live. (more…)

The Very Best of Sonny Rollins

By Paul Casey

“What was beginning to happen to me was that I was being expected to really deliver great music all the time. In other words my name was bigger than I thought I could support with what I was doing. I remember one particular job that I had, when I just felt I wasn’t really playing well enough, you know? And everybody was really so excited to see me and I really felt I let the people down. I was really frustrated with myself, you know? That was really the genesis of this thing on the bridge. That’s what really it was all about.

I was out walking two blocks from where I lived at, actually, and I looked up and I saw these steps, you know, going up. And I walked over the street and I walked up those steps and there was this big beautiful expanse of bridge, you know? Nobody up there.

Usually I don’t pay too much attention to the trains. Usually absorbed in what I’m doing. But in a way it adds, you know it’s part of the atmospheric noise, and it adds to your playing in a way, you know? All these sounds, you see, because I’m sure subconsciously I change what I’m playing to blend with the sound of the train. It all has its effect.”
—Sonny Rollins from BBC Arena’s Beyond the Notes documentary

A striking image in the history of the 20th Century Jazz. A powerfully gifted man, having given up a professional life in music, plays his saxophone atop the Williamsburg Bridge, between Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York. Sonny Rollins, music, and the world. Moving with the trains, with the earth moving as they pass by, and the earth moving to the sounds of his saxophone.

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The Very Best of Wes Montgomery

By Paul Casey

“His playing transcended the instrument. Other Jazz guitarists, you know they’re playing the guitar but Wes and his whole approach, the way he phrased, his sense of swing, you kind of lost a sense that he was playing the guitar. He played the guitar like a horn, for instance. He phrased like a horn player and it just really caught people’s imaginations. It was really different.”
—Jim Ferguson from NPR’s The Life and Music of Wes Montgomery

The guitar was rarely a dominant instrument in Jazz. Relegated to a back-up, or to flesh out a sound, the guitar did not have the sparkly flair of a lead instrument. With the exception of Benny Goodman Sextet member Charlie Christian, or the Gypsy Jazz of Django Reinhardt, there were few guitarists in Jazz who were considered to be serious figures in the genre. Through his recordings and performances, Wes Montgomery did much to legitimize the guitar in Jazz, as well as influence a whole heap of musicians. The fracturing of the genre into Free and Fusion guaranteed its place, as well as the legacy of Wes Montgomery.

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On The Airwaves, Postmeridian: Q&A with Glenn di Benedetto of Parlour Bells

By Chelsea Spear

Nate Leavitt, Glenn di Benedetto of Parlour Bells
Photo © Derek Kouyoumjian

After the Parlour Bells ended an epic set at the funeral for Boston radio station WFNX, former ‘FNX program director Paul Driscoll was heard to say “I think I have a crush on the whole band!” It’s not hard to see why one would become besotted with the rising Boston quartet. Their darkly romantic pop songs engage the listener with anthemic melodies, cinematic arrangements, and seductive vocals. Fans of Orange Juice, Peter Murphy, and Sparks might find room in their hearts for these up-and-comers.

On a balmy mid-July day, I called up charismatic vocalist Glenn di Benedetto to learn more about the Parlour Bells. (more…)